Happy BirthdayNovember 3

post from The WGOM on 03 November 2009 06:45:59 AM. © The WGOM

Jim McCormick (1856)Larry Kopf (1890)Homer Summa (1898)Bob Feller (1918)Ken Holtzman (1945)Dwight Evans (1951)Larry Herndon (1953)Bob Welch (1956)Paul Quantrill (1968)Armando Benitez (1972)

There do not appear to be any players with connections to the Twins born on this day. It should be noted that Homer Summa is a great name for a ballplayer.

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Solar Sox Summary

post from The WGOM on 03 November 2009 06:43:17 AM. © The WGOM

Bryan Petersen (Florida) had three hits, scored twice, and drove in two as Mesa defeated the Peoria Saguaros 7-2 Monday.

Twins players did not do particularly well. Steve Singleton was 1-for-3 with a run scored; his single started a two-out, three-run rally in the fifth. Rene Tosoni was 0-for-4. Chris Parmelee was 0-for-3 with a walk.

The [...]

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Incredible Drawing of the New York Skyline

post from Dear (Tommy) John Letters on 03 November 2009 06:43:00 AM. © Dear (Tommy) John Letters

An autistic artist by the name of Stephen Wiltshire took a 20 minute helicopter tour of Manhattan, and then drew the entire skyline from memory.

Doesn't it remind you of the time that I drew a picture of Camelback Mountain for my blog from memory?
Like most people, I am utterly fascinated by the minds' of autistic savants. Not too long ago, I read Born on a Blue Day, a memoir by Daniel Tammet. It was a quick and easy read with some definite lulls, but the chapter on his memorization of pi was mind boggling. He currently holds the record for memorizing pi to the most decimal places. Try and guess how many digits that might be.... did you guess 22,514? Because that's what it is. Daniel Tammet sat in a room full of checkers, and read off 22,514 consecutive digits of pi from memory. It took him 5 hours and 9 minutes without a break. He describes how he does it, but his description is no help to people like you and me. He sees the number as a huge panoramic picture with colors and textures and complex shapes. His recitation of the number is him simply getting the image in his head, and then describing it. To Daniel, every contour of his visual depiction corresponds to a number. It's a method that he developed innately. Amazing.
In a related development, I was on the phone with my bank the other day and was asked to recite the last 4 digits of my Social Security Number. I froze.

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Caribbean Report

post from The WGOM on 03 November 2009 06:33:44 AM. © The WGOM

Where they stand: For the week, Aragua was 2-3. For the season, the Tigres are 7-12, in sixth place, 7.5 games behind first-place Magallanes. They are 2.5 games behind fourth-place Zulia; if memory serves, fourth place is the last playoff spot.

Who's hot: Dustin Martin was 8-for-15 (.533) for the week with three doubles and a [...]

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Bowa: Phillies Are Stealing Signs

post from Sliding Into Home: A Yankees Blog on 03 November 2009 05:30:00 AM. © Sliding Into Home: A Yankees Blog

From Steve Popper:

Larry Bowa, who has been a Phillies? player and manager, as well as a coach for the Yankees, leveled a charge ? a very detailed charge ? on Philadelphia?s 950 ESPN radio that the reason the Yankees have worn a path to the mound isn?t confusion or to settle the pitcher, but to shift signs to deter what they believe is sign stealing being performed by the Phillies.

...

"There?s rumors going around that when you play the Phillies, there?s a camera somewhere or bullpen people are giving signs, and catchers are constantly changing signs," Bowa said. "That?s the rumor. Now is it [proved[? No. I?ve had three people come up to me, ?Watch center field, they?ve got a camera. Some guys stand up by the fence and if their arms are up it?s a breaking ball.? I didn?t see it, but other teams swear by it.

"So I?m sure the Yankees personnel said, ?Heads up, these guys like to give signs from second, they?ve got people in center field. So they were constantly changing signs. Posada was paranoid about it. CC was paranoid about it so they kept going out. They might have changed signs four times on one hitter. That?s the reason he went out. It wasn?t to say to him, ?Settle down.? It was, ?Go to this sign.?"

Here's what Joe Girardi had to say when he was asked about this:

"We?re careful with all clubs," he said. "That?s just something that we do. That?s been going on for years."

Charlie Manuel had this interesting quote via the LA Times:

"I can tell you this, if I can steal signs, I will," he said. "We don't have their signs and we're not stealing their signs. But we are trying."

As much as I'd like to bash Manuel for saying that I can't. Mainly because Girardi is right, this stuff has gone on for years and will continue to go on as long as this game is played. I just hope the Yankees are trying to steal signs too.

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Report: Jobas mom faces prison time (AP)

post from MLB News Blog on 03 November 2009 05:02:53 AM. © MLB News Blog

The mother of New York Yankees pitcher Joba Chamberlain faces up to 20 years in prison on a felony drug-sale charge. The Lincoln Journal Star reported Tuesday that Jackie Standley pleaded no contest Monday to delivery of a controlled substance in Lincoln, Neb. Sentencing is set for Dec. 16, pending a recommendation from a drug [...]

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The Sports Authority jinx

post from lenNY's Yankees - A Bronx Bombers Blog on 03 November 2009 05:00:00 AM. © lenNY's Yankees - A Bronx Bombers Blog

That is the e-mail I received yesterday afternoon from a Sports Authority promoter. I know you want to get your gear out to the fans, but screw you, Sports Authority. Why do they have to send out these e-mails before it happens? Just announce it[...]

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George W. Bush attends Japan Series (AP)

post from MLB News Blog on 03 November 2009 04:34:01 AM. © MLB News Blog

Former President George W. Bush threw out the ceremonial first pitch before Game 3 of the Japan Series between the Yomiuri Giants and Nippon Ham Fighters. Bush, wearing a Yomiuri warmup jacket, took the mound Tuesday at Tokyo Dome and threw a pitch to Giants catcher Shinnosuke Abe that bounced once in the dirt before [...]

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Burnett and Coke Discus Their Embarrassing Night

First some quotes from Burnett via Mark Feinsand, Sam Borden, and Chad Jennings:

?I had a chance to do something special tonight and I failed,? he said. ?I let all the guys in here down and I let a whole city down. These guys played their heart out for all nine innings, but I didn?t give us a chance to win.?

"I feel like I let 25 guys down,? he said. ?I just couldn?t get it to go where I wanted it to go."

"It's me. You've got to take it hard. This one's on me. You can't blame it on anyone else."

That pretty much sums it up well.

And now some quotes from Coke via Brendan Prunty:

"That wound up being the outcome," a somber Coke said afterward. "Those two home runs in the inning. I mean, I?m pretty embarrassed for myself and the way that all went."

"[The pitch to Utley] was right down the middle," Coke said. "Better not miss your pitch if you get one there. And he didn?t."

As for Ibanez's blast:

"It was in the right area, as far as being off the plate ? on the outside corner of the plate," he said. "It was up, it was above his belt and I mean, he?s obviously a good hitter. He got the log on the ball and it went out."

...

"All I can do is hope that we can come back and win the game after going out and screwing up as bad as I did," Coke said. "But I came up short and it ended up being those two runs instead of a tie game. That?s what we end up losing the game by."

...

"I want the ball in the game tomorrow," Coke said. "That?s the only thing I?m thinking about."

Yea, I wouldn't bet on that happening. I think the next time we see Phil Coke will be in spring training.

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A Few Observations

Rich Lowry on why Obama passed on commemorating the fall of the Berlin Wall:

Obama famously made a speech in Berlin during last year's campaign, but at an event devoted to celebrating himself as the apotheosis of world hopefulness. He said of 1989, "a wall came down, a continent came together, and history proved that there is no challenge too great for a world that stands as one."

The line was typical Obama verbal soufflé, soaring but vulnerable to collapse upon the slightest jostling from logic or historical fact. The wall came down only after the free world resolutely stood against the Communist bloc. Rather than a warm-and-fuzzy exercise in global understanding, the Cold War was another iteration of the 20th century's long war between totalitarianism and Western liberalism. The West prevailed on the back of American strength.

Greg Mankiw on why it is 'absurd for the Administration to claim that jobs saved or created can be measured:'

I do not object to claims such as,

A: "Based on our models of the economy, we believe there would be X million fewer jobs today without the stimulus."

But it is absurd to suggest that you can say,

B: "We have measured how many jobs the stimulus has saved or created, and the number is X."

Economists are capable of making statements such as A, but it is beyond our ken to make statements such as B. Statement B is,of course, much stronger than statement A, as it purports to be based on data rather than on models. Unfortunately, we are hearing statements like B much too often from administration officials. A good example is here, where can you "learn" that 110,185.36 jobs have been created or saved in California alone.

Dan Le Batard on the logic of how someone as decent as Bob Griese gets suspended -- thanks to Robert at the 26th Parallel blog for the pointer:

"Out having a taco."

That's what Griese said during a college-football broadcast a week ago, trying to make a joke about race-car driver Juan Pablo Montoya. And I, a Cuban sports columnist, am still trying to figure out how and why I'm supposed to be offended, and for whom. Colombians? Mexicans? Hispanics in general? Cheap food? Taco Bell?

If Griese had said arepa, would that be allowed because Montoya is Colombian? If Manny Fernandez had said exactly the same thing, would that be OK? Was Griese's crime getting Montoya's nationality wrong or his nationality's food? Or was it being white? Is his joke permissible if Montoya's car had been sponsored by Taco Bell?

Regardless, I wish I'd heard a fraction as much about Griese's charity work (helping kids cope with grief) as I did this week about tacos. It didn't make me angry. What it made me was hungry. And it's a good thing for Griese he didn't go anywhere near Taco Bell's new black taco.

(You have to admit, having someone who pronounces his name ``greasy'' involved in a taco controversy is oddly wonderful. Almost as great as if it had involved Art Shell, Matt Fish, Billy Beane or Renyel Pinto.)

In our zeal to be sensitive, we're often too sensitive. But this is what can happen when a bunch of white executives punish a white broadcaster for what they think might offend people who aren't white. You want to tackle a real race issue? Don't punish Griese. Put some black and Hispanic people in charge so they can tell you what does and doesn't offend us the next time something like this comes around. Punishing Griese doesn't make you sensitive to racism; it just makes you look like you'd very much like to appear sensitive to racism. That isn't the same thing at all.

Le Batard article referenced is copied in full at end of post -- since the McClatchey corporate mindset thinks that will cause us to pay for their content.

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Taco hell: A bad week for former Miami Dolphin Bob Griese
By DAN LE BATARD - dlebatard@MiamiHerald.com

Posted on Nov. 01, 2009

Six syllables.

That's all it takes to stain and scar your name. All the good work before it, all the good decades of good words and good syllables and good professionalism gets swallowed in a hiccup. How have we arrived in this place where so little dark can envelope so much light?

Distinguished Dolphins legend Bob Griese was perfect in 1972 and has been pretty publicly perfect since, becoming one of the nation's best college-football voices. That voice has spent a lot of time in our living rooms over the years, talking to us for hours and hours on Saturday afternoons, but it was silenced this weekend. Punished. Suspended for a week. And stained in a way that hurt his name and echoed throughout the The Land Of The Free Until You Say Something That May Or May Not Be Considered Kind Of Sort Of Offensive By Somebody. It was, a wounded Griese said, the first time in 28 years of broadcasting that he has gotten in trouble with an employer.

``Out having a taco.''

That's what Griese said during a college-football broadcast a week ago, trying to make a joke about race-car driver Juan Pablo Montoya. And I, a Cuban sports columnist, am still trying to figure out how and why I'm supposed to be offended, and for whom. Colombians? Mexicans? Hispanics in general? Cheap food? Taco Bell?

If Griese had said arepa, would that be allowed because Montoya is Colombian? If Manny Fernandez had said exactly the same thing, would that be OK? Was Griese's crime getting Montoya's nationality wrong or his nationality's food? Or was it being white? Is his joke permissible if Montoya's car had been sponsored by Taco Bell?

Regardless, I wish I'd heard a fraction as much about Griese's charity work (helping kids cope with grief) as I did this week about tacos. It didn't make me angry. What it made me was hungry. And it's a good thing for Griese he didn't go anywhere near Taco Bell's new black taco.

(You have to admit, having someone who pronounces his name ``greasy'' involved in a taco controversy is oddly wonderful. Almost as great as if it had involved Art Shell, Matt Fish, Billy Beane or Renyel Pinto.)

In our zeal to be sensitive, we're often too sensitive. But this is what can happen when a bunch of white executives punish a white broadcaster for what they think might offend people who aren't white. You want to tackle a real race issue? Don't punish Griese. Put some black and Hispanic people in charge so they can tell you what does and doesn't offend us the next time something like this comes around. Punishing Griese doesn't make you sensitive to racism; it just makes you look like you'd very much like to appear sensitive to racism. That isn't the same thing at all.

`A VERY TOUGH WEEK'

I wanted to have an honest conversation about this with Griese. I came as an ally. But he wasn't getting anywhere near this stove again.

``It has been a very tough week,'' he said. ``I want to be known for something else. I don't want to continue this. I just want to put this behind me. I've gotten a lot of support -- calls from Keith Jackson, Don Shula. Is this what it feels like to die?''

I asked if this was the toughest week he can remember.

``And more,'' he said.

You know what gets lost there, right? An honest, open conversation -- one in which people, you know, learn and, you know, understand. You can't have those when scared. I wanted to know specifics. How and why, exactly, did he apologize? Because of the action, the reaction or because his bosses simply said he should? Had he heard from anyone in Miami who was offended? How does it feel to be at this storm center, knowing that this whiff of racism is the only thing some people will know of him as they come into sports from outside to see what all this noise is about? I wanted to make him human, not just four words.

MINORITY CARTE BLANCHE

But I understand his fear. If I didn't understand all this as the allegedly injured party, how could he? I can say what I want about this, too. I've got minority carte blanche. That dynamic can create resentment among white people, that I get more of a free-speech America than they do when discussing this stuff. I get it. I find myself dancing around land mines any time I want to discuss black issues on the radio or TV. Any sentence can end my career, which doesn't exactly foster healthy communication or confident discussion.

Last week on the radio, for example, we talked a lot about former Heat star Antoine Walker blowing through a $110 million fortune while supporting 70 family members and friends. I wanted to know what elements of this, if any, were cultural, so I brought on three black peers. Washington Post columnist Michael Wilbon said it was a cultural issue and that it takes a special kind of will power and discipline for a young, rich person of any color to be unpopular among friends by saying no. Jalen Rose said it was a socioeconomic issue, not a cultural one, and that people of all color and creeds in entertainment lose their money by being reckless and trying to help loved ones. And Charles Barkley flatly blamed black culture and freeloaders.

But Barkley is the rare fearless celebrity who can say just about anything he wants without worrying about silly things like food stereotypes.

Which might explain how he could say, as he did, that the greatest white man ever is Colonel Sanders.
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